“The country needs an effective and proper security policy. The last two govts have not had a good security policy…The security policy is completely compatible with the peace agreement. They feed each other.” —@JuanManSantos

This shouldn’t be brushed aside. It shouldn’t be glossed over. And it shouldn’t be normalised.

Albanians have taken to the streets of Tirana to protest a plan linked to President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to build a luxury resort in protected wetlands on the Albanian coast. Yet Albania’s PM tells me “there is no project,” dismissing the story as fake news.

“I’m anti-war & I cannot agree with the idea that a military intervention would mean stability or the democratic recovery of Venezuela. This is not the time to keep escalating. I think it’s time to open the doors to a face-to-face negotiation between Trump & Maduro”—-@hcaprilesMostrar mais

As PM Netanyahu reportedly seeks the “full conquest of Gaza”, Martin Griffiths, Former UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief tells me:  “This is an astonishing public declaration of criminality. It’s a call for a criminal act”.

Hundreds of retired Israeli security officials have written a letter urging President Trump to end the war in Gaza. Tonight, I spoke to one of the signatories of that letter — Ami Ayalon, the former head of Shin Bet: “this is not a just war.”

"Pope Francis was amazing in so many ways. And I think that his greatest strength was to be able to tell the truth. He spoke the truth about refugees and migrants, about the need to help them as human beings,” tells me @FilippoGrandi

“Russia’s tactics have always been salami tactics—to cut piece by piece, in terms of territory, geographically or strategically… That’s why a position of strength & negotiations through strength are extremely important,” tells me @AndrisSpruds , Latvia’s Minister of Defence

“I have questions: What fact is President Trump operating on? Because we haven’t seen any fact to support the statement that Putin wants peace. You see, if Ukraine stops fighting, there will be no more Ukraine. If Russia stops fighting, there will be no more war”-@kiraincongress

“Let’s be clear. The existential fundamental threat to all of us is the threat from the outside. It is Russia first of all; aggressive , revisionist dictatorship which invades other countries &has complete disregard for human lives & international norms,” tells me @AndrisSprudsMostrar mais

“Right now, it seems like any path people take here it leads to death. If it’s not the bombs & the strikes, we’re seeing families burning alive in their tents”, tells me @UNWateridge live in Gaza

As North Korean troops are deployed to Russia, @GLandsbergis tells me “it’s worth revisiting” President Macron’s idea—proposed earlier this year—of European boots on the ground in Ukraine. “I’m really hopeful that this idea is still on the table”.

“It’s a major escalation in the war. What we're seeing is an axis of countries…all of them assisting Russia in this war effort. So it tells you that it's no longer regional, it's no longer just European. It’s a global conflict” @GLandsbergis on NK troops in Russia

“The failure to cease this moment & bring about a ceasefire…is a failure of leadership. He [Pres Biden] has not been very effective because he has not withheld arms” tells me Mary Robinson, Fmr. Irish President, Fmr. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights & Chair @TheEldersMostrar mais

“While the leaders of the free world are gathering here in Washington, Putin is killing children in Kyiv, & the best thing to do right now is to send a message back…to allow Ukrainians to use the weapons that they’re being given deeper in Russia” tells me @GLandsbergis

“Netanyahu has learnt over the last 7 months, maybe over the last 7 decades that he can cross every red line. The U.S., Uk, Europe, the rest of world, UN, ICJ, ICC, Secy Council—name it, he doesn’t care. Simply because he won’t get the serious consequences”—tells me @hzomlot

“We saw a lot of strikes over the last 24 hrs in downtown Rafah which is a couple of miles to the west of the declared evacuation zone, so bombardments going way beyond the evacuation zone…people are fearful, helpless & living in the most humiliating & degrading condition…Mostrar mais

“Finally” tells me @NRC_Egeland reacting to the U.S. decision to pause a shipment of bombs to Israel “How on earth could the US, our closest ally in NATO, provide indiscriminate 2.000 pound bombs to an indiscriminate military campaign in a place filled with women & children?”

Polish FM: “The EU has spent double what the U.S. has spent on helping Ukraine. We are often suspected, in the U.S., including in Congress, of being free riders. Well, on this one, we have done the right thing. We now need 🇺🇸 to do what the President has promised”

🇵🇱 @radeksikorski “The Pres of the US went to Kyiv in wartime & assured Ukraine that the US will do ‘whatever it takes’. That ‘whatever it takes’ surely includes antimissiles artillery…to defend Ukrainian cities. If it doesn’t, the US credibility will be at stake.”

“I promised myself that I would never get to the point of saying ‘we can’t describe this’. Today, I just wish that I could have captured the number of mum’s who greeted me in tears because they’re running out of ways to protect their children from starvation &bombs” @1james_elderMostrar mais

“They [US admin] are treating him [Benny Gantz] as if he’s a Prime Minister in the making, in the hope that this will seriously upset & rile Mr. Netanyahu”—@AlonPinkas on how Bibi, “through hubris & rudeness”, has turned “Israel from an ally to a high-maintenance, ongoing…Mostrar mais

“My own staff, my own colleague Abeer has been eating animal feed, and horrifyingly, the food that they were eating which is food for horse and donkeys is now running out, and they’re now eating bird seed”, tells me @melanie_ward @MedicalAidPal

“There are at least a couple of actors behind the scenes who are heavily invested that this (Hamas) conflict is prolonged as much as possible.” Lithuania’s FM @GLandsbergis says Russia “is profiting” from conflict—“distracting us from Ukraine works perfectly.”

“We have to take away the illusion that, if somehow [the West] stopped helping Ukraine, the war will go away. The war will not go away.” Latvia’s FM @krisjaniskarins : “We’re at a difficult juncture, we have to realise collectively that we have to help Ukraine stop Russia.”

Israel has “definitely” breached international humanitarian law in Gaza, tells me Slovenia’s Foreign Minister @tfajon The FM says she believes the world has “failed on tests of humanity”, adding “there’s no second chance to save Gaza”. The FM called for a ceasefire.

“I think it's fair to say I've never seen anything like this, & I never expected in my life I would see such an appalling situation.” Dr. Nick Maynard, who led an EMT at the Al-Aqsa Hospital says the situation has been “beyond any doubt the worst thing” he’s ever seen.

“We’ve seen several acts of harassment by Russia” tells me Finland’s FM @elinavaltonen “We have seen an increased amount of cyberattacks, and in recent weeks, Russia has been mobilising their country’s citizens towards our border to seek asylum.”

“It gives me no joy to have to be critical of Pres Biden, he happens to be a close personal friend…but sometimes you have to speak truth to power. It’s not just Israel that is losing into support, it’s America too by being too close to a govt that is not leading well.” 👇🏻

“This is a desperate attempt by Venezuela to seize our territory”. As Maduro orders the creation of a new state, including land from #Guyana, @OTPGY says “In this Western hemisphere, we cannot allow a situation like Ukraine, we cannot allow the annexation of a territory”

“I would say to the Biden Administration, don’t provide arms to the killings of thousands of children, not a few children, thousands of children, every hour,” tells me the Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council @NRC_Egeland 👇🏻

Mary Robinson, Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights & Chair of @TheElders urges the U.S. “to urgently review its military assistance to Israel & put in place conditions for any future provision”. If this doesn’t happen, she tells me “then the USA owns the problem”…Mostrar mais

“This cannot be the last convoy. It just can’t. There’s too many lives at stake here” tells me @WFPChief as 20 aid trucks crossed from Egypt to Gaza. Before the conflict, an average of 450 trucks were arriving in Gaza daily.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister @GLandsbergis tells me tonight that “Until Ukraine has won, nobody is safe”. He added “If Ukraine is unable to win, if Putin can claim victory, then it spells problems, it spells a new geopolitical reality for everybody, not just for Ukraine.”

The Armenian Ambassador to the UK has called on the “international community to take a role” in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Amb @VaruzhanN tells me that the ethnic Armenians in the disputed territory have “been subjected to total & inhumane blockade for more than nine mont…Mostrar mais

“This is Russia at play” European Parliament Pres @RobertaMetsola tells me that’s “it’s no coincidence” that tensions between Azerbaijan & Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh region escalated as world leaders gathered in NY. Pres Metsola called it “a one-sided attack”. 👇🏻

Ecuadorian Presidential candidate & fmr. VP @ottosonnenh tells me “There’s a lot of influence of drug dealers & drug traffickers in different institutions in the country; in the judiciary branch & even some influence in the police force, and in local governments”. #EcuadorDeLutoMostrar mais

“In Portugal, it is forbidden to smoke tobacco outside a school or a hospital. It is forbidden to advertise ice cream & sugar candies. And yet, it’s allowed for [people] to be there, injecting drugs,” said Rui Moreira, Porto’s mayor. “We’ve normalized it.” www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/07/07/po...Mostrar mais

As the #Taliban extend their repressive rule over the women of #Afghanistan, @Fawziakoofi77 tells me “the world is failing the women of Afghanistan.” “They are being deprived of all basic fundamental rights…and their existence is being questioned. They have become invisible”.

Estonia’s FM @Tsahkna tells me the #Wagner rebellion was just the small visible part of a much larger problem for Russia calling it the “top of the iceberg.” On #Ukraine, he added “The most dangerous place for neighboring countries is to stay in the waiting room of #NATO.”

Kosovo PM tells me tonight he will not surrender the country to a “fascist militia”. I asked @albinkurti whether he planned to heed calls to withdraw Kosovar police officers from the country’s northern municipalities & he told me: “We have to have rule of law. 1/4

Gracias a todos 🇲🇽 por vuestras mensajes de apoyo y bromas brillantes🌋 #Popocatepetl. He estado practicando pero me voy a quedar con El Popo, just in case! Pero sí, es difícil!

A fascinating discussion with the talented @drexlerjorge on the rise of Latin music, the appeal of regaetton & the importance of “singing the Uruguayan dictatorship out my bones”. Intv coming soon 📺

@FranceskAlbs says she’s always been "disappointed" by US policies on the matter & says UN Security Council is "paralyzed" by the US veto. “There is a schism, a sort of disconnect between what the UN as a general assembly recognizes as wrong & what it has the capacity to…Mostrar mais

The UN Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestinian Territories, @FranceskAlbs tells me that the European Union's words of condemnation following remarks made by Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in France are not enough. 1/2

As Georgians take to the streets of #Tbilisi for a second night to protest the foreign agents bill, Georgia’s President @Zourabichvili_S tells me “Georgia is not the next [target], but the ongoing victim of Russia’s aggression, of Russia’s imperialism”. #TbilisiProtest

Israeli Fin Min Bezalel Smotrich called for the Palestinian town of #Huwara “to be erased”. @NRC_Egeland gives me his reax: “What I heard was an ugly face of an ugly, lethal, terrible, unjustifiable occupation. This is mafia style politicians who have come to power in #Israel.”

Fmr 🌍 chess champion @Kasparov63 tells me “Putin hopes to out-suffer #Ukraine” but “this is not a Ukrainian war, this is our war. Because, God forbid #Putin succeeds, he will never be stopped”. “A Ukrainian victory will impact freedom all over the🌎 from N.Korea to Venezuela.”

Lithuanian PM @IngridaSimonyte tells me that Russia suspending its participation in the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty is Moscow's "trick to increase pressure." On allies hesitating, she tells me: “How can you push back Russia’s military if you do not have heavy weapons”

The @UN says that $54 bn are needed to meet the basic needs of the world’s most vulnerable, but the UN doesn’t expect to raise even half of that. @UNReliefChief tells me “how do you choose between a school & a clinic, how do you choose between food & nutritional support”.